How to Avoid 5 Common Wedding Planning Mistakes
Let’s face it: weddings can be expensive, emotional and challenging times on what should be the happiest weekend of your lives! Bogle Farm has hosted hundreds of Brides and Grooms (as well as planned weddings for our 3 daughters!) Here are a few common mistakes that we have made, and seen others make in watching many families try to create a positive, memorable experience.
Delay picking your date, until you choose your place to get married. Unless there is an extraordinary reason to pick a specific date, please consider choosing your venue first. It is not uncommon for venues to rent 12-18 months in advance. To leave your options open, make certain your date, at your chosen venue is available before setting a date to be married.
Decide your vendor team as early as possible. Like with venues, the best photographers, caterers and florists book early---often over a year in advance. Once your venue and date is selected, get your key vendors lined up as soon as feasible. It may seem odd to book a florist 12-18 months in advance, but many vendors are limited during busy season on how many weddings they can successfully serve.
Determine who you REALLY want to serve in an official capacity in your wedding party, and limit the number as much as possible. Each person added to your bridesmaids and groomsmen typically brings a plus 1. This means double the costs for housing, florists, meals, gifts, etc. Today there are other ways to honor friends and family members without them serving officially as a part of your bridal party. Ideally choose those who you love to be with and realistically expect to be lifelong friends.
“Do It Yourself” is fine for some projects---but NOT a Wedding. Hire a professional to assist you. Wedding weekends are among the most emotional times of your life, with all families. These weekends are also full of dozens of details which are easily forgotten by those who are not professional wedding planners. A professional planner with experience in your wedding location, will likely save you more money than their fees cost! And, they bring a wealth of experience with specific vendors, planning multiple events that just cannot be replicated by your mom’s sister or the groom’s godmother! There are roles these people can play and you can definitely ask them to help out---but rely on professionals to do the bulk of the work for the most special weekend of your life.
Distinguish early on between good ideas and “must haves” for your wedding. Pinterest and dozens of other bridal sites have thousands of ideas for weddings and many are really good. But on an exceedingly busy weekend, when people are really the most important part of the affair, be careful trying to replicate every good idea you see. First, most good ideas take some money and someone’s time to execute and doing many things well is difficult unless you are hiring a large staff! Second, focus on those things that really mean a lot to you and your partner and develop a plan to do those in an excellent fashion. We have seen too many bridal parties spend lots of time and money on items and ideas that most guests never really appreciated.
So, these are our recommendations for planning and executing a wonderful weekend! Finally, it is YOUR WEEKEND, and no one else’s. Parents, friends and others will have opinions and their viewpoints. But you and your partner will likely be happiest when each part of the weekend is yours, to create your memories pictures for your lifetime. Congratulations…. And All the best!
